Seizing control of ISIS headquarters has been the key goal of the forces loyal to Libya's Government of National Accord.
Seizing control of ISIS headquarters has been the key goal of the forces loyal to Libya's Government of National Accord.
Tripoli
: Pro-government forces said they captured the Islamic State group's headquarters in their main Libyan stronghold of Sirte today, scoring a major victory in a push to oust the jihadists from the city.
IS fighters remained in several parts of the city, officials said, but seizing control of their headquarters has been the key goal of the forces loyal to Libya's Government of National Accord (GNA).
The taking of the headquarters followed rapid gains by pro-government forces through the city today and after the United States last week launched air strikes on IS positions in Sirte at the GNA's request.
The city's fall to IS in June last year raised deep concerns in the West, with fears the jihadists were gaining an important foothold just across the Mediterranean from Europe.
-"The Ouagadougou centre is in our hands,-" the operations centre for pro-GNA forces said, referring to the Sirte conference centre where IS had set up base.
Reda Issa, a spokesman for the forces, said IS jihadists remained in three residential areas of the city and in a villa complex near the seafront.
-"The announcement of the liberation (of Sirte) will only be made once the entire city is liberated,-" he told AFP.
The capture of the headquarters came after a lightning advance today that saw pro-GNA forces seize the University of Sirte campus just south of the conference centre and the Ibn Sina Hospital to the north.
It was not immediately clear how many fighters on either side may have been killed in the clashes, but the operations centre said earlier that at least 20 jihadists had died in fighting for the university campus.
The operations centre also said pro-GNA forces had lost contact with one of their military planes, without providing further details.
The IS-linked Amaq news agency said the group's fighters had downed a warplane in Sirte, resulting in the pilot's death.
Pro-GNA forces entered Sirte -- 450 kilometres east of Tripoli -- in June, after IS seized the city amid the chaos that followed the 2011 ouster of Moamer Kadhafi.
Their advance slowed as the jihadists hit back with sniper fire, suicide attacks and car bombings but on Sunday pro-government forces said the -"countdown-" had begun for the final assault on IS's holdout positions in the city.
Washington launched its air strikes on August 1, with President Barack Obama saying it was -"in America's national security interest-" to help the GNA -"finish the job-" of ousting IS from Sirte.
In a statement today, the US Africa Command said 29 strikes had been carried out against IS positions as part of -"Operation Odyssey Lightning-" as of yesterday.
